Bill would legalize cell phone unlocking for individuals only.

The US House of Representatives today passed a bill that would make it legal for individuals to unlock cell phones for use on a different carrier's network, but only after watering it down enough that consumer advocates opposed the legislation.

"Unlocking" a phone allows it to be used with any cellular carrier, as long as the network is compatible, making it easier for consumers to avoid being tied to any one carrier.

Further Reading

The "Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act" passed today repeals a Library of Congress decision that made unlocking phones a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) anti-circumvention provision. The bill drew support from consumer advocates until a section banning "bulk" unlocking was added.

"[T]his legislation allows any individual who wishes to unlock their cell phone for personal use to seek help from others without violating anti-circumvention provisions," a bill summary states.

This is just for individual use, the bill text emphasizes. Unlocking "may be initiated by the owner of any such handset or other device, by another person at the direction of the owner, or by a provider of a commercial mobile radio service or a commercial mobile data service at the direction of such owner or other person, solely in order to enable such owner or a family member of such owner to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when such connection is authorized by the operator of such network," it states.

The new provision that drew criticism says unlocking shall not be allowed "for the purpose of bulk resale." It was added by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who sponsored the bill.

This provision led consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge to withdraw support. iFixit also withdrew its support, and so did Sina Khanifar, who started a White House petition that helped push the government to act on cell phone unlocking.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote that "[b]ulk unlockers acquire phones from a variety of sources, unlock them, and then resell them. By expressly excluding them, this new legislation sends two dangerous signals: (1) that Congress is OK with using copyright as an excuse to inhibit certain business models, even if the business isn’t actually infringing anyone’s copyright; and (2) that Congress still doesn’t understand the collateral damage Section 1201 [of the DMCA] is causing. For example, bulk unlocking not only benefits consumers, it's good for the environment—unlocking allows re-use, and that means less electronic waste."

The bill passed 295-114 with 200 Republicans voting in favor and Democrats split 95-94. The bill will head on to the Senate for consideration there.

The EFF said another House bill, the Unlocking Technology Act, is better because it "would limit violations of section 1201 to actual cases of copyright infringement."

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular recently bowed to pressure from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and voluntarily committed to unlock customers' cell phones. However, that commitment was only for customers who had paid off their contracts and given carriers a year to comply.